Man Detained in Turkey After Firing Shots Outside U.S. Embassy

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ISTANBUL—The U.S. closed its three main missions in Turkey on Tuesday after a Turkish man fired shots outside its embassy in Ankara, just hours after a local policeman in the capital assassinated the Russian envoy and amid back-to-back terrorist attacks nationwide that have killed 59 people in the last 10 days.

A man discharged a firearm at 3:50 a.m. in Ankara, the U.S. mission said in a statement, shuttering the embassy and its consulates for the day in Istanbul and Adana—home to the joint Turkish-American air base Incirlik that is used for strikes on Islamic State.

The person, identified as Sahin S., pulled out a pump-action shotgun hidden under his coat as he approached the U.S. embassy and fired some nine rounds in the air overnight, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. Turkish police guarding the American mission detained the man and are investigating the incident.

Tuesday morning’s incident by the U.S. embassy comes on the heels of a shooting at a contemporary-arts center just a block from the American mission, where a Turkish policeman gunned down Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov Monday evening. The 22-year-old assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas, said the attack was retribution for the Kremlin’s Syria policies, which many Turks blame for the bloodshed in their southern neighbor.

Turkish and Russian officials have decried the assault as a terror act targeting their improving bilateral ties and efforts to secure a truce in Syria, as the nation’s five-year conflict increasingly destabilizes Turkey. The U.S. vehemently condemned the killing of Mr. Karlov, with State Secretary John Kerry offering assistance to investigate what he called a “despicable attack.”

Tensions between Ankara and Washington because of differences over Syria policies have also been fueling conspiracy theories in Turkey, where major pro-government newspapers have been accusing the U.S. of planning the July 15 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, safeguarding the alleged mastermind of that failed putsch and sponsoring Kurdish insurgents.